Closure devices for liquid containers incorporating a hole for the exit of liquid from the container and a hole for the entrance of air into the container, such that said entrance of air aids in the exit of the liquid, are known in the state of the art. Examples of said closure devices are used in cups or bottles with a large diameter, used especially by young children and the elderly.
However, said devices are not widely applied to bottles, mainly to bottle caps for mineral water, soft drinks or isotonic drinks mainly due to the size of the cap and particularly to the surface of said cap. The inclusion of a hole for the entrance of air into the mentioned caps would cause the liquid to come out of the bottle both through the liquid outlet and through the air inlet due to the dimensions thereof. This is because the distance between both inlet and outlet is limited by the surface of the cap, making it necessary to arrange the inlet and outlet close to one another. When the surface of the closure device is larger, usually equal to or greater than 2.5 cm in diameter, it allows placing the liquid outlet and the air inlet at points spaced out from one another, so the aforementioned problem is not present or is present to a lesser extent.
The size of said surface also allows incorporating different mechanisms in the closure device to prevent the liquid from coming out through the air inlet. These mechanisms are formed by elements independent from the body of the cap or cover of the container per se, aiding the user or consumer in consuming the liquid. Said closure devices are primarily made up of different bodies or components coupled to one another forming an assembly, which further has different materials with different mechanical characteristics for the sole purpose of achieving the aforementioned objectives, primarily to aid young children or the elderly in consuming a liquid stored in the container. The fact that the closure device is formed by different bodies or elements coupled to one another involves a manufacturing cost increase because the assembly and coupling of different components must be added to the independent manufacture of the different components, sometimes with materials having specific characteristics such as latex or silicone. This means that these closure devices are intended to be reused due to their high cost compared with caps typically used in small volume PET bottles containing liquid for personal consumption and mainly used by children, the elderly and athletes.
Unlike what has been described, the cap object of the present invention is designed for use in preferably single-use mass consumption products, mainly such as 0, 25 l, 0.33 l, 0.5 l, 0.75 l and up to 2.5 l PET recipients and normally used for mineral water, soft drinks or isotonic drinks. However, this cap is particularly applied in small volume recipients, mainly up to 0.75 l, because they are normally used by users to drink directly from the recipient, and particularly children and athletes.
The caps used today in the aforementioned type of bottles for mineral water, soft drinks and isotonic drinks only have one small hole for the exit of the liquid, so the consumer needs to suck to extract the liquid or compress the recipient or container if the material thereof allows this to directly drink the stream coming out of the liquid outlet. If the consumer sucks, problems derived from said suction, such as the need to stop sucking to take a breath and be able to continue drinking and deformation of the container due to collapse, being creased and/or crushed indiscriminately while sucking, causing a change in the shape of the container, especially when it is made of PET, making it difficult to hold, will occur. These problems are worsened if the consumers are young children, convalescents or the elderly who need to stop to take a breath, running the risk of drinking a lot of liquid since they cannot control the suction exerted with the subsequent risk of choking. A suction cup effect that is annoying for the consumer is created in caps of the state of the art when drinking stops.
By means of the present invention, it is possible to use in recipients or containers of the state of the art caps having the same cost or a cost very similar to that used today having a single outlet for bottles with the aforementioned capacity, but incorporating an added function, which is allowing consuming the liquid without the problems of caps currently used and formed by a single hole.
In summary, in the state of the art, no closure device or cap for bottles or containers is known to have a small entrance surface, usually at least 2.5 cm in diameter, incorporating on the surface of the same body of the cap or closure device a hole for the exit of the liquid and a hole for the entrance of air with a valve controlling the entrance of air into the container and preventing the exit of the liquid contained therein, or check valve, said valve being built into the body of the cap or closure device forming a single body or part made from the same single material, i.e., said valve is part of the same part as the cap with its outlet.
In summary, the caps of the state of the art incorporating or describing check valves are made with several bodies in the sense that they are made up of several elements coupled to one another, the valve being partially made from a resilient and/or flexible material, usually latex or silicone. These materials prevent manufacturing a cap with sufficient rigidity for being coupled to a recipient or container by means of threading for example, not even by using simple and highly productive manufacturing processes that allow obtaining a product with a cost that is very similar or identical to that used today in the aforementioned recipients, i.e., with a cost similar to caps with a single liquid outlet.